I'm a huge fan of strategy games and especially a fan of the Total War franchise. I've played every single game in the series with the exceptions of Napoleon and Attila as I saw them as cash grabs that should have simply been expansions. But I have to say, that without a doubt Empire: Total War is the worst game to ever come out in the series without a shadow of a doubt and that is the only reason I am reviewing it despite it being an old game.
As with all Total War games, the game was developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. Due to the game being a real time strategy game it is of course a PC exclusive, but it is available on any operating system that a PC can operate with. I played the game through Steam on my PC of course as I am a card carrying member of the PC master race.
At the time of its release Empire: Total War looked and sounded good for the time, a few years down the line now though and its nothing that special. Its aged and it shows pretty clearly as the engine it was developed on has become outdated. Outdated doesn't mean it looks terrible though, its not you are playing a dos game. The sound design is also alright, like most strategy games its all pretty throw away stuff with the effects being the most important part and that still does alright, the cannons have a nice boom effect and rifles fired in unison sound like a nice roar below a thick cloud of smoke. It just can't compete with more recent games though.
Having glazed over the complementary aspect of the game we can now actually talk about the mechanics that are supposed to hold it all together. The gimmick that the Total War series has going for it is that it mixes real time combat with turn based strategy and that is present here as it is in all other games in the franchise. The problem was, this game brought nothing new or significant to that formula. Much like the games that came directly before it, It was just numerous layers of fluff over a body that was almost exactly the same. The nail in the coffin for the game though was its aggressively boring combat. I personally don't know if I should play the game that much, but 18th century combat did not lend itself well to the genre of real time strategy or at least the way its done by the Total War games. Almost all battles happened the same way with lines of troops forming in front of one another and simply shot at each other until someone ran away. This made for insanely boring battles are you did the same thing over and over and over again due to the fact that cavalry and infantry become near useless at the end of the game against mass swarms of rifle infantry. The artillery are a bit fun, but much like the infantry end up focusing each other down first to get rid of each other and whoever won that stand off usually also won the battle. Oh, let me not forget that the units for all countries were essentially the same meaning that it didn't matter who you pick, you were going to be playing the same thing over and over again just with different colors this time.
The mind numbing combat aside, the game also developed much the same way every time. India would always form into a huge nation and come stomping into the middle east, the colony areas would be taken over in the same way by the same powers and there were essentially no surprises ever. The diplomacy in the game is also a joke with aggression coming at you for no reason and suddenly which would be fine as a surprise attack but the AI doesn't even prepare that well and just marches to wars that it can't win, but I guess it must be as bored as the players playing the game. All this pretty much meant the game aside from being boring also had no replay value making its worthless as a strategy game since all the fun comes from the fact that playing as different factions will force you to adapt new strategies and do different things and that jut doesn't happen here.
This is a game that you should stay away from at all costs. It is hands down the worst game in the entire franchise due to its boring gameplay in both the over map and the combat maps themselves. This is only made worse by the meaningless naval combat, diplomacy and suicidal AI making the game as enjoyable as plucking your nose hair. Don't take this as someone hating on Total War, I love Total War, just look at my hours logged in all its previous rating and my reviews for those games. This hatred is a one time thing for Empire: Total War specifically since it such an outstanding rubbish game and I'm just glad it didn't poison my opinion of other Total War games.
At the time of its release Empire: Total War looked and sounded good for the time, a few years down the line now though and its nothing that special. Its aged and it shows pretty clearly as the engine it was developed on has become outdated. Outdated doesn't mean it looks terrible though, its not you are playing a dos game. The sound design is also alright, like most strategy games its all pretty throw away stuff with the effects being the most important part and that still does alright, the cannons have a nice boom effect and rifles fired in unison sound like a nice roar below a thick cloud of smoke. It just can't compete with more recent games though.
Having glazed over the complementary aspect of the game we can now actually talk about the mechanics that are supposed to hold it all together. The gimmick that the Total War series has going for it is that it mixes real time combat with turn based strategy and that is present here as it is in all other games in the franchise. The problem was, this game brought nothing new or significant to that formula. Much like the games that came directly before it, It was just numerous layers of fluff over a body that was almost exactly the same. The nail in the coffin for the game though was its aggressively boring combat. I personally don't know if I should play the game that much, but 18th century combat did not lend itself well to the genre of real time strategy or at least the way its done by the Total War games. Almost all battles happened the same way with lines of troops forming in front of one another and simply shot at each other until someone ran away. This made for insanely boring battles are you did the same thing over and over and over again due to the fact that cavalry and infantry become near useless at the end of the game against mass swarms of rifle infantry. The artillery are a bit fun, but much like the infantry end up focusing each other down first to get rid of each other and whoever won that stand off usually also won the battle. Oh, let me not forget that the units for all countries were essentially the same meaning that it didn't matter who you pick, you were going to be playing the same thing over and over again just with different colors this time.
The mind numbing combat aside, the game also developed much the same way every time. India would always form into a huge nation and come stomping into the middle east, the colony areas would be taken over in the same way by the same powers and there were essentially no surprises ever. The diplomacy in the game is also a joke with aggression coming at you for no reason and suddenly which would be fine as a surprise attack but the AI doesn't even prepare that well and just marches to wars that it can't win, but I guess it must be as bored as the players playing the game. All this pretty much meant the game aside from being boring also had no replay value making its worthless as a strategy game since all the fun comes from the fact that playing as different factions will force you to adapt new strategies and do different things and that jut doesn't happen here.
This is a game that you should stay away from at all costs. It is hands down the worst game in the entire franchise due to its boring gameplay in both the over map and the combat maps themselves. This is only made worse by the meaningless naval combat, diplomacy and suicidal AI making the game as enjoyable as plucking your nose hair. Don't take this as someone hating on Total War, I love Total War, just look at my hours logged in all its previous rating and my reviews for those games. This hatred is a one time thing for Empire: Total War specifically since it such an outstanding rubbish game and I'm just glad it didn't poison my opinion of other Total War games.
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